George Osborne defends new high speed rail network

The Chancellor says "the nation of Isambard kingdom Brunel should not
blanch at building 400 miles of railway" at the Telegraph Festival of
Business.

8:10PM GMT 12 Nov 2013

HS2 will allow trains to travel at 225mph along a new line north from London. Ministers say the link is vital to Britain’s future prosperity.

Although critics question whether the benefits will outweigh the financial and environmental costs, speaking at the Telegraph Festival of Business Chancellor George Osborne argued that the project needed cross party support to be a success.

He said: "None of the big infrastructure projects are possible without some political consensus".

But he argued that a lot of people cry out for more investment in infrastructure but when they got the detail they did not like it.

He noted that before the M25 was built that was also "bitterly contested", as was the Channel Tunnel and the M62 extension.